Don Quixote by principal guest ballet master Mikhail Messerer premieres at Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on April 11. On April 12, the principal roles are played by former Bolshoi Theatre principal dancers Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev, who left the theatre in 2011 looking for new creative opportunities.
Premiere performances of the new production of the ballet Don Quixote will be seen at Mikhailovsky Theatre on April 11, 12, 14, and 15.
The ballet was staged by Mikhailovsky Theatre’s principal guest ballet master Mikhail Messerer. Photo: Victoria Kutepova as The Street Dancer, and Andrei Merkuriev as Espada, the toreador, in a scene from the ballet Don Quixote.
Mikhail Messerer said the famous ballet, set to Ludwig Minkus’s music, has been “refreshed and tidied up.” Stage Designer Vyacheslav Okunev has updated the scenery and costumes. Photo: Alexei Kuznetsov as Sancho Panza.
On April 11, Olesya Novikova and Leonid Sarafanov act as Kitri and Basil, replaced by Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev (photo), former Bolshoi Theatre soloists, on April 12.
Vasiliev and Osipova left the Bolshoi Theatre in 2011, seeking for new creative opportunities.
Marat Shemiunov (photo) as Don Quixote.
Alexei Kuznetsov (right) plays his devoted servant Sancho Panza.
The ballet Don Quixote was originally staged by Marius Petipa for the Bolshoi Theatre in 1869. The premiere in the Mikhailovsky Theatre was held on November 21, 1996. Photo: Natalia Osipova as Kitri in a scene from the ballet Don Quixote, the Mikhailovsky Theatre.
The ballet is not a stage version of the famous novel by Miguel de Cervantes, but an independent ballet production based on it.
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are minor characters in the ballet. The plot revolves around the love story between Kitri, an innkeeper’s daughter, and Basilio, a poor barber. Photo: Natalia Osipova as Kitri and Marat Shemiunov as Don Quixote.
Kitri has been played by Matilda Kshesinskaya, Anna Pavlova, Olga Spesivtseva, Olga Lepeshinskaya, Yekaterina Maksimova, and other famous ballerinas. The ballet ends with the famous pas de deux, when 32 fouettés are “fired off.”
